Blogs from Puerto Madryn, Chubut, Argentina, South America - page 19

I leave Buenos Aires at 20.30. This partucular bus comes with free entertainment (or tedium, depending on how you look at it) - a tone deaf Argentine teenager who insists on singing (I'm being generous there) along to his portable CD player. When even my own music can´t drown him out I am forced to lean over and say, ' Excuse me, can you sing in your head please, I don´t want to listen to your music.' It works. The official entertainment comes in the slightly inappropriate form, in my opinion, of two films about transport catastrophes - Flight 93 (about 9/11) and Poseidon. The former is, frankly, not what you need to be seeing when a world away from everyone you love, and hurtling down a dark Argentine highway in the middle of nowhere. Finally, ... read more

Nick: It is now Wednesday and 4 days from my little drama and the third day since we left the comfort of Marahue. Our first day involved a couple of hours of riding which saw us in Carmen de Patagones. This is a pleasant town where we enquired about a camping site, found out it was on a dirt track and promptly I enquired about hotels instead. We found one and took a room there: so much for camping 5 nights out of 7! But, as Kristina pointed out, wé'll have plenty of chances to redress the balance in more desolate places!! As you, the reader, can probably guess, the spill has knocked my confidence somewhat. I've been here before: every twitch of the front end leaves me thinking , I'm about to hit the deck ... read more

After spending an amazing day in Puerto Pyramide visiting the whales of Golfo Nuevo, I spent my next day in Puerto Madryn relaxing and enjoying my time away from Buenos Aires. I slept in late, drank my morning coffee leisurely and wrote in my journal all the while trying to figure out a way to travel a little further south in hopes of seeing the elusive Magellan Penguin colony of Punto Tumbo. I had considered an organized tour but felt that it was incredibly overpriced; I was determined to find another way. I had enquired about renting a car and found that it would be cheaper and much better if I could only find one other person to share the cost and experience with. That is when I ran into Erin and Olga, a couple from ... read more

So we left Buenos Aires on Tuesday 19 September and caught the overnight bus all the way down the East coast of Argentina to Puerto Madryn. It was a 20 hour trip but fortunately we were in a business class style bus so was pretty luxurious. They had a bingo game for which Amelia called the English-Spanish translation and then went on to win! They also insist on playing the bloodiest, most violent and scary films imaginable at about 11pm! Puerto Madryn is the nearest town to the Peninsula Valdes which is a funny shaped national park sticking out into the Atlantic. We did a terrifying jeep tour up and down impossibly steep lunar coastal terrain. The most exciting part was the whale watching. We were worried that they wouldn't come out to play for us ... read more

Puerto Madryniin mennaan vain yhdesta syysta: katsomaan valaita! Niin tai merileijonia tai pingviineja, mutta koska pinkut nayttaytyvat nailla leveysasteilla vain kesaisin ja merileijonia ei tielle osunut niin meille syita oli vain tuo yksi. Muuten kaupunki on pieni ja tuulinen, eika tarjoa suuriakaan matkailuelamyksia. Meille viikonloppu tarjosi tervetulleen lepotauon ja mahdollisuuden kerata rinkkaan lisaa puhtaita vaatteita. Tama meidan pyykkipaivien hehkutus voi kuulostaa kotona majaileville Upo Pesukarhun kanssa harva-se-paiva treffaileville hieman omituiselta, mutta kun pussin pohjalla pilkottaa yhdet puhtaat sukat eika sitten muuta niin alkaa miettia itseriittoisesti, etta mitahan dormin muut majoittuvat miettia minusta ja ominaistuoksustani... Puerto Madrynissa Hanna paasi laulamaan partioleirien muistojen kunniaksi laululeikkia "aiti antoi mulle rahaa, osta vahan kalaa. Mina... read more